Chapter 16
Mackenzie's POV
If I thought school was hell before..
Returning was freaking terrible. I guess since the memo got around that regular crazy Mackenzie was back, everyone decided that it was okay to alienate me. It was only the beginning of first hour and everyone was staring at me and whispering. There was even a sophomore girl who came directly up to me and asked if I could switch my personalities on and off "for strictly psychology interests." What the hell? The only thing that made school not so bad was the prospect of lunch and seeing Kat and Kace. I heard from Melody that they were dating now. She sounded bitter about it buy I was afraid to ask about what happened when I wasn't here. Plus she didn't seem too intent on telling me anyway so..
I skipped going through the lunch line and instead made a beeline straight for the table me, Lance, and Kat used to occupy. Sure enough the two were there together. As I approached, Kat stood up.
"Kenzie?" Her big blue eyes were watery. It was in that moment that I realized she actually did consider me a friend and that she actually cared through it all.
"Kat," I greeted with a smile on my face. Then she had nearly jumped across the table and was enveloping me in a giant bear hug. I held her small body in arms, trying hard to hold back my own tears at her warm welcome. "I missed you too."
When she pulled away the tears were streaming down her face and she was flushed. She wiped at them half heartedly. "You have no idea how much I missed you. None." And I smiled. I smiled because she didn't have to miss me anymore and because I knew I at least had one friend who would always be here.
My eyes wandered over to Kace, who still hadn't said much. "And you've got something to tell me," I added with a smile.
She blushed immediately. "Well if you're hinting, you already know," she muttered sassily. I smirked at her. She had grown some backbone.
"Maybe I just want to hear you say it. Although," I added. "I was really hoping you and hot volleyball playing Michael would get together."
It took her exactly two seconds to turn an even brighter red and swat at me. "Stop it!"
"Who's Michael?" Kace looked slightly uncomfortable but curiosity and jealousy trump awkwardness and guilt all the time.
Kat glared at me. "No one," she assured him at the same time I said "this hot guy."
Kace looked confused but quickly dropped it with a shake of his head. I honestly had never seen him this quiet and mellow before. It was starting to creep me out. "Kace," I greeted him with a tentative smile.
He gave me a half hearted side smile but it was gone almost immediately after it had come.
"Kace I'm not upset with you. You're- you were my friend."
"You should be upset with me."
I sat down at the table, tired of standing there awkwardly. "Why? You didn't do anything to me."
"I didn't help. I didn't come check on you. I was a terrible friend."
He was clearly intent on torturing himself today. "Just answer me one question, okay?" He met my eyes and nodded. "Were you going to forgive me before everything happened that day?"
He hesitated a bit, but finally answered. "I think so. I'm not sure. I was so angry with you. I felt like you purposely betrayed me when all I had been doing was helping you. I wanted you to suffer, but I missed you Mackenzie. I still do."
I smiled at him. "Then let's start over. You're Kace Super Swagged Out Awesome Pants and I'm Kenz Sometimes Kayla But Just As Awesome Sick Pants."
He gave me the first smile since he'd seen me. "So..Casekbjasp?"
"Exactly, Ksoap."
I briefly made eye contact with Kat and she smiled at me before returning her gaze to Kace. They actually were quite cute together.
A white blonde haired girl approached our table and sat down. "You two are disgusting," she greeted the couple. Her eyes barely registered me. "Kayla, nice of you to join us. Lance bribe you or something?"
She wore leather pants and gages in her ears. She looked hardcore. "Who are you?"
She finally looked at me, studying my attire, which consisted of my favorite Green Day tee and dark blue jeans. "Mackenzie."
I smiled a corner smile. "That's me."
She smiled back but it seemed strained. "Luca," she introduced herself.
I looked to Kat but she was avoiding my gaze for some reason. Kace just gave me a look of pity. Who was this chick?
Shortly after our awkward introduction, Lance showed up. At the sight of Luca and I sitting next to each other he tensed and slowed down. "You two have met?"
I looked up at him and in my best impression of the lady from that video, answered "barely." That's right, I've been catching up on the latest viral trends.
It was supposed to make him laugh or at least crack a smile but his expression never broke. He turned his eyes over to Luca. "What are you doing?"
She looked slightly taken aback and very offended. "I'm sitting at lunch with my friends, or am I not allowed to do that anymore?" The bitter tone was not missed.
He rolled his eyes at her. "Luca, you know that's not what I meant."
She glared at him. "I'm not doing anything."
"I find that hard to believe."
The tension in the air was thick and smothering. "Look, if my presence is causing problems I can go do the dreaded meeting with my ex boyfriend's friends who now think we're friends. Really, it's no problem." I started to stand only to be pushed back down by Lance.
"Stay." I didn't like the way he was commanding me, but all things considered, I would let it pass.
"Ay,ay, Captain."
He sat on the opposite side of me, leaving me between him and the Luca girl. Every few seconds I could see or feel one of them look the other's way. Clearly there was something going on that no one wanted me to know about.
Kat was in the middle of telling us about some major art piece she was doing when I decided I had had enough.
"What the hell is everyone hiding from me?" They all looked at me strangely. "I can take it, whatever it is. I promise not to go all batshit crazy and turn into my hyper bitch alter ego."
For a moment, everyone appeared uneasy. No one was opening their mouths to speak or directly meeting my eyes. Then Kace sighed.
"Lance and Luca dated while Kayla was here. They broke up because you came back. There. I said it."
A wave of nausea rolled its way through my stomach. It wasn't like he was mine. He was never mine. I had been through this before with Olivia. He was allowed to date. He wasn't mine. Why did it hurt so much more this time?
"Mack."
I expected this. He had to have moved on. I was freaking dating Liam for Christ's sake. Lance didn't belong to me.
"Mack," he tried again, placing his hand over mine.
Unknowingly, I winced away from his touch. "I'm sorry," I immediately apologized. "It's fine. I'm fine."
I could feel his gaze burning into the side of my face but I wouldn't look at him, only at Kace, who was giving me a knowing look. He understood. "No you're not. Come on, let's go somewhere. Let's go talk."
"No, I'm good. There's nothing to talk about."
He shook his head, reaching for my hand again. "Yes there is."
"There's not."
Everyone's attention went to Kace, who had just spoken.
"She said there's nothing to talk about so there isn't. She's fine, leave her alone." He gave Lance a pointed look and reluctantly, he backed off. I gave him a thank you smile and he returned it.
Lunch went on awkwardly, but peacefully. After it was over, Kace grabbed me up and we decided to skip our next class to catch up. We headed to my car and just sat there.
"Thanks for that by the way."
He smiled crookedly at me. "It was no problem Kenzie. I understood what you were feeling. I went through it too, remember?"
And that made me feel like crap. "I'm still really really sorry Kace. It was never my intention to hurt you. I just was trying to be everyone's friend and it was a stupid decision. I'm so sorry."
He shrugged. "You're forgiven."
I let my head roll over to face him. "Yeah, but am I really?"
"I just don't understand why you wouldn't tell me. You knew how much I loved her. You saw us together and you knew. You knew I would get hurt."
And there it was. "I can't excuse my behavior, Kace. What I did was wrong and stupid and careless and I don't expect you to understand why I did it. All I can say is that I truly regret it and it won't happen again. I've learned my lesson and I don't want to lose you again. You're one of my best friends and it hurts me to know that I hurt you. I wasn't thinking about anyone's feelings when it all went down and that was the problem. I'm truly sorry."
He took a deep breath and released it. "That's as good as it gets, huh?"
I cracked a small smile. "Yeah, that's as good as it gets."
He nodded. "I can handle that."
With that he reached for the door handle. Quickly, I grabbed his arm. "Slow your roll mister." He gave me a puzzled expression. "You still have yet to tell me what went down with you and my sister."
He visibly winced. "How do you know about that?"
I glared at him. "Doesn't matter. Talk."
He sighed as I released his arm. "You know she had a thing for me at the beginning of the year. When you 'died' she was hurting and I was hurting. She didn't understand why you would do that and I blamed myself. We snuck off from your funeral together and um, self medicated." He averted his eyes at this. Bastard gave my baby sister drugs. "Anyway, we kind of got in the habit of meeting up and doing bad stuff together. We would go joy riding in my mom's car or shoplift keychains; petty stuff really. It wasn't even a relationship. We kinda just made out and pretended to be badasses together for a few weeks. Then me and Kat got assigned to this art project together and I remembered that she was your friend and she was handling everything so much differently than we were. She was making these paintings and they were so deep and beautiful. They captured you. You should really ask her to see them some time. We ended up talking a lot and I realized how broken she was and I found myself just wanting to help fix her. So I ended things with Melody and stopped my crime streak. The rest is history I guess. As much history that can happen in like three months anyway.."
I wanted to be angry with him about Melody but that really wasn't my fight. He hadn't done anything too wrong and he was helping Kat. How could I be pissed at him for helping Kat?
He faltered a bit. "Are you angry with me?"
I shook my head. "No. I want to be but I'm not. I guess today is a time for forgiveness."
He gave me a goofy smile. "I guess it is."
Song is Easy by Son Lux. Creepy, but reminds me of MTW for some odd reason. Idk. Lorde has a cover of it that's pretty decent.
Next chapter will be either Lance's POV or Mackenzie encountering Liam's friends. Haven't decided yet because I'm a slacker.